Good Wine Cheap

There are some people who don’t think wine vintages are important in California. From a consumer’s perspective, they are often right. Then all of a sudden a year like 2011 comes along and smacks them right in the face. Fortunately for those who make California wine – not to mention those who just love to [...]

For at least two years I have been saying that the best cheap wines are from Spain. It is at least a true now as it was 2-3 years ago. When people think of Spanish wine, they almost always think of red wine. And for good reason. Most Spanish wines are red, and most Spanish [...]

You want some wine that doesn’t taste like grape juice and lighter fluid. And you only have 5 or 6 dollars to spend on it. What do you do? Some would say punt the wine and buy a six-pack of beer. Not a bad suggestion, but there are alternatives it you really want drinkable wine.

There is no question that the 2011 vintage was a tough one in California and much of the west coast of the USA. Especially for red wines. I had the opportunity to speak with someone whose family owns a winery in Napa. When I asked him about 2011, he told me they had to do [...]

In a perfect world, two 90 point wines would definitely be equally good. They wouldn’t taste the same, but each would be as good as the other. But guess what? It isn’t a perfect world. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there it is. So why isn’t each 90 point wine equally good? 90 Point [...]

Now is the winter of our discontent. Hang on a minute. I think that was that done before. Anyway, it’s winter right now, and it looks like higher wine prices are on the horizon. Wine bargains could be fewer and farther between pretty soon. That’s enough to stir anyone’s discontent.

The derision that is heaped upon inexpensive New World chardonnay is remarkable. Lindeman’s is from Australia, but I’ll include it in the New World category because of the style of the wine more than anything else. It is said that inexpensive (or cheap) New World Chardonnay is flabby, without structure, and is over sugared. Some of it, or even a lot of it, certainly fits into that category. But every now and then there is a surprise.

In our constant quest for good wines cheap, the crack research staff (me) at Avoid Bad Wine found some gems. To be prcise, the gems showed up in my email inbox. A top-notch wine shop near my house (great job, Roger, Stephanie & Tish) had a tasting of 5 wines from Tilia in the Mendoza region of Argentina. According to the wholesaler’s rep, Tilia is a 2nd label from Catena, a high end producer of wines in Argentina.